need advice

[andy99]

hi everyone i have a 150 mixed reef established for 6 years know and i just bought a very nice 135 gal tank used with a hood and canopy and fluorescent lighting with a ehim filter. it also has some fake decoration with it that was used in fresh water if i clean will it be good. i want to set this up for a fish only aggressive tank and i plain on putting in it 1 trigger 1 eel 1 emperor angel fish. i don't plain on putting any live rock or sand. i plain on buy fake decorations for the tank. with the information i supplied what type of filtration am i going to need to keep this tank stable. i also plain on do a 35 gal water change every 2 weeks.on my main system i do 50 every week. please help thank you

[sevendigitcake]

you arent going to be able to keep the emperor in there for its life span, the tank is too small. Is the tank drilled, if so you should do a sump with either live rock in there or bio balls. Although bio balls and other artificial filtration is frowned upon in the saltwater hobby, it can work in a FO tank as long as you clean it regularly. Also the fake corals will grow coraline algae all over it and not look like how you want it, so what you can try is noxious corals like leathers and mushrooms, it will look nice and you can still keep the fish on your list(minus the emperor)

[sevendigitcake]

sorry, if the tank isnt drilled and you have no plans for a sump a canister filter is the way to go

[andy99]

i have a left over sump from my 150 because lifereef built me a custom one

[sevendigitcake]

then use the sump and your in business. FO arent as popular as they used to be bacause live rock is consider better than other forms of filtration, but bio balls and a over sized skimmer will work to. Just keep the fake decorations clean and you will have a really nice display.

[andy99]

for my bio load if i put 90 lbs of rock in you think that will be enough

[andy99]

or if i decide to go bio balls would i have to rinse and no live rock

[sevendigitcake]

i dont quite understand, would you have to rinse the bioballs? do you mean before you put them in or rinse as in maintance? well you rinse them before you put them in and then when you do your water changes you would vacuum the detritus in the sump. Just to be clear though, live rock is much better and most people opt for liver rock. You have to keep that sump as clean as possible, but remember that washing the bio balls in fresh water will kill the bacteria on your bio balls and your tank will basically cycle again

[andy99]

i have decide to put 90 lbs of live rock and set up my old sump with the protein skimmer which is a euro reef. for my light it only has 2 bulbs you think that will be enough for stuff i want to keep

[sevendigitcake]

it sounds like it will be a nice set up. you dont need a lot of light to keep fish only. 2 bulbs will be more than sufficient

[andy99]

once i reserch what eel i want i will be posting to find out more info since it will be my first ever eel
thank you for your help

[sevendigitcake]

i feel personally the nicest looking reasonably sized eel would be the goldentail eel ( both colour variations). they only get to 2 feet, more than likely will not eat your fish and are very attractive. If you want something a little cheaper than a snowflake eel would be a good choice. Just make sure you have a sturdy cover and you stick feed the eel

[andy99]

the golden tail looks nice my cover is very tight i was lookinh at the dragon eel but expensive

[sevendigitcake]

yea dragon eels are really nice, but they are expensive and im not sure how fish safe they are. someone on this board would be able to tell you .